Search form

Main menu

Matt Zimmerman

Matt Zimmerman was a Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on civil liberties, free speech, and privacy law. He is particularly interested in how anonymity, free expression, and online activism are affected by Internet intermediaries. His practice further includes ongoing work in intellectual property law as well as government transparency issues. Previously, Matt worked at the international law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he focused on technology and commercial litigation matters, and the nonprofit advocacy organization The First Amendment Project, where he specialized in privacy and free speech issues. He earned his law degree from Columbia University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Ed Davis from Common Cause has posted a good blog entry about today's HR 550 media coverage which is followed by comments from participants in the last two days' lobbying activities. Check it out here.

Although "endorses" is a bit of an understatement: "Every member of Congress who cares about American democracy should get behind Mr. Holt's bill." The editorial reads with a familiar, almost exasperated tone, one begging the obvious question: how can there still be any disagreement about this?

John Gideon, Information Manager for Voters Unite, reports back from Day 1 of the two-day HR 550 lobbying blitz with (mostly) encouraging signs. And also, a few reminders that the merits of legislation alone rarely determines the final outcome.

As expected, citizen lobbyists today encountered a range of responses, both positive and negative, to their efforts to push for the passage of HR 550. Mark Fresolone, a NJ activist, thinks that the lobbying effort is making headway but also that political maneuvering and misinformation continue to slow progress.

How much impact can citizen lobbyists have on the legislative process? Plenty, says Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy for Vote Trust USA, who generously, breathlessly, called to share his thoughts in his three free minutes between lobbying meetings.